Story 8: The Red Head System
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Story 8: Chapter 1: The Gremory Trait.
– ? –
I turned the pages of the old Grimore to find something to help me.
Three years.
It has been three years since that day.
On that day I found out that this world I was in was fictional. A world which I vaguely remembered being from a Light Novel of my supposed previous life.
Man, I should have read the book despite the cringe from the MC. Even the complete first volume would have helped.
Too late to regret it now.
I am in the underworld.
The son of Zeoticus Gremory, the head of the House of Gremory, one of the seventy two pillars, Duke ranked, and one of his concubines/harem members.
My mother passed away shortly after childbirth and I suffered from some kind of sickness from birth.
I don't know if the circumstances were natural or something because at the age of five, I gained a ton of memories. It was and is still a bit odd as I don't know if I am an adult or just a child who has gained twenty years worth of memories. For my sanity, I consider them the memories of my previous life.
This world was dangerous. Like it wasn't even a joke to say that city destroying monsters were not even in the top fifty of this world.
And I as a Devil was involved in a three way war between the Angels, Devils and the Fallen Angels, by the virtue of birth simply.
To explain how bad things were, all four Satans were already dead and new Satans had taken their place.
It was even worse for me because I was the half brother of the new Lucifer which put me on the radar of a lot of the world.
So yes… I am in quite a mess.
The Gremory were a noble family. It did give me a lot of rare opportunities which would have been absent if I was born as a commoner.
I lived a very comfortable life. Money was never a problem. Resources were provided to me quite generously.
But not everything was hunky dory.
This place… it lacked emotions. The maids took care of me mainly. My Father had a harem of peerage members. Mother used to be a part of it too until she passed away. That said, my father only had three children.
The other harem members were not exactly thrilled about me.
Devil Fertility Rates were low. They were jealous about my birth.
The main wife Venelana didn't care. Her position was unshakable so she was fine with me. Others, not so much. That said, none of them dared to do any harm to me. Not after one of them suddenly disappeared after harassing me. I still don't know how.
Now, they just didn't care.
So I didn't care either.
And as for my father, all interactions I had with him were like business interactions. Then again, it was understandable. He was a thousand years old devil. It would be odd if he was anything else.
Thankfully the memories of an adult life helped.
What mattered the most in this world was strength.
And thus I was here, with a book to search for the Clan Trait of the Gremory.
Unlike my two half siblings who gained the Bael Clan Trait of the Power of Destruction from their mother, I was born of a reincarnated human and had no such privileges from my mother's side.
The only way I could gain anything was from the Gremory side.
As for the Gremory Clan Trait. It was listed as Camel taming.
Man… I had blanched so hard when I heard that.
I wasn't the only one though. My elder half sister, a year older than me, had yelped in fear. Yeah, she was afraid, traumatised even by Camels.
Apparently, my ancestor, the first Gremory, Runeas, was adept in the art of Camel Taming. Camels strong enough to ruin cities apparently but still… Camels?
Why couldn't it be something like the Gryphons of Focalor, or Lions of the Vapula or even Dragons of the Buné?
I personally didn't believe it.
So, what could the Gremory Clan Trait be?
Being lucky? Many people say Gremory Luck was a thing apparently.
I already performed several… hundreds of experiments to verify it.
The results were quite fruitless.
Having an OP Big Brother?
Again nah. That bastard was cold as ice. He doesn't even care about Rias, his own sister, let alone about me.
What else?
Being a redhead?
Gremorys are famous for their Crimson Hair. I inherited that too and it looks awesome. Too bad they cannot be considered as a Clan Trait.
… well not for others maybe.
[Daily Quest Completed]
+0.2% Progress on the current Template.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni [100% complete]
Congratulations on completing the second Template.
Please select the upgrade:
Enhance Breathing Techniques
Enhance Transparent World
Enhance Demon Slayer Mark
Enhance Swordsmanship
Enhance Basic Stats
Hmm… what to do?
Breathing Techniques are pretty much everyday things in a Supernatural World. There are several enhancement techniques here. Not to mention, I could probably enhance them myself with some work.
Transparent World… nah. Senjutsu of this world has similar effects and can stack.
Demon Slayer Mark. A 20% boost so around 12x boost of the base physical stats.
10 is more than enough.
Swordsmanship.
Hmm. Now that's something cool.
After fully integrating with the man's powers, I could only be in awe of the sheer talent of this monstrous swordsman.
Enhancing that…
I can't even imagine what the end result would be.
Enhance Swordsmanship.
I felt the surge of memories and closed my eyes for a few minutes.
Yes. This was quite good.
This was my so-called cheat. I call it my makeshift Gremory Trait.
What it does is gives me the powers of random anime characters over time.
It depended on the rate of integration.
I need to practise the skills, do tasks daily and quests to increase the rate of merging.
When the characters are fully merged, like Yoriichi, I get to enhance one of the aspects of their powers beyond them.
The only catch is that… all the characters need to be redheads or partial redheads.
I don't know who gave me this power but I am pretty sure he had an odd sense of humour.
Not that I mind. I would have been pretty much helpless without this.
Yoriichi was my second template and I was pretty sure that I could wipe the floor with almost any Mid Class Devil and put up a fight against a High Class with my current powers.
A Mid Class Devil at eight is good, even for Pillar Devils.
My first Template was a non combat Template which I don't regret choosing for even a moment. Sora from the No Game No Life franchise.
As a boost, I chose to enhance his intelligence even more, making myself somewhat of a prodigy, matching both my half-siblings.
Finally, after three years of grind, I completed the second template and it felt great.
Randomising the next Character Template.
Several characters passed in front of me and the counter finally stopped at… Nagato Uzumaki.
Character Template Selected: Nagato Uzumaki
Integrating the Character Template. Current Progress - 0%.
Nagato Uzumaki.
I searched my memory for the character and sure enough… a shinobi from the Naruto World. The range of abilities he possessed were quite good but there was also a problem… Rinnegan.
I was already starting to feel a slight itching in my eyes.
Will my eyes change too?
Dammit. I need to find a spell to hide my eyes' changed appearance.
But I didn't have the time now.
The door to the room opened as soon as I kept my book on the bookshelf and entered a ball of energy known as Rias Gremory, my elder sister.
"Flinn? Are you awake? Why were you not at the dinner table today?" She asked as she got rid of her clothes before jumping in the bed.
Sigh.
Over the years, I am already used to it and now this feels more or less normal too but sleeping naked was incredibly odd at first.
Huh? Maybe the Gremory Trait was exihibitionism.
"I ate my dinner in the library. How was your visit to the Sitri House?"
"Hmm, it was good. The same old. Sona and I played some games. You could have joined us, you know."
Yeah, not at all.
Sona Sitri, the younger sister of Serafall Leviathan was my sister's best friend which was rare considering that Rias was plain cold towards anyone else. Not to say she was anti-social. She was actually quite famous among the circle of self entitled brats which were the devil noble children but I knew from my cold reading abilities that she was merely showing a fake front for them. She told me this herself. These feelings were just a bit less in case of Sona, and hence the best friend.
This place made us grow faster. She was a lot more mature than she was behaving right now. In fact, the only person she was totally frank with is surprisingly me.
Maybe this was because of that time before I had regained my memories. I had seen her crying and helped her sleep by singing a lullaby. She has started sleeping with me since. Still didn't know the reason why she was crying though.
She never told me but said that she would when I am a bit older.
I didn't probe.
Everyone has their own secrets. I was not sure when I would tell her about mine or if I ever would.
As for Sona and me… we don't get along so well.
The thing is, Sona Sitri is a chess fan.
She was even called a prodigy at the game and often challenged anyone who would play her.
And my Sora Template needed me to play games.
I might or might not have defeated her to tears in the game… more than once….alright a few hundred times, so….
In my defence, the progress of the template was too tempting to resist.
Sora was a man who had played against the God of Games, Tet. A mere seven year old Devil child… please.
"I was busy." I replied as I got out of my clothes and got into the bed too and she snuggled into my side tightly.
"So, how is your swordsmanship coming up?"
"I think I will be taking a break from swordsmanship. Did you practise the things I taught you?"
"Umm. The Total Concentration Breathing method was quite good. You are a genius, you know. Why don't you reveal this method. I am pretty sure you will get famous in the underworld."
"And? What use would it be for me? It's not like I need anything to trade the method for. I think it's better to not catch too much attention. Not to mention, it would probably get me scolded by Father for revealing it to others as well as hiding it for so long. I am fine."
It was fine to be smart to not be sidelined. But catching too much attention could be dangerous. Venelana didn't treat me badly but if I were to become a danger to the Heiress position of Rias due to exhibiting high talent, it could change. And I wanted nothing to do with that.
"Hmm, fair point. I still don't get why you hide this."
"To teach my Peerage members when I participate in the Rating Games. It could be one of my trump cards" I explained to her.
"Oh, that's a great idea. As expected, Flinn-kun is so smart." She rubbed her cheeks against mine and I sighed.
I really don't know why she becomes like this beside me but I blame Serafall.
No. This is probably Sona's masterplan to get revenge on me. To change my cute sister into the Magical Girl menace and make my life a cringy hell and share in her suffering.
Well played Sona Sitri. Well played. It seems I will have to go and beat her in chess once more soon.
"Rias."
"Hmm."
"Do you know any illusion magic?" I asked her. She might behave like this with me but she is a veritable prodigy at magical arts.
Matching me even with my Templates. And she was still stronger than me although she was only a year older.
No one knew this except me but she was already touching High Class level.
"Illusion? I might know some."
"Can you teach me?"
"Eh?" She looked at me with a smile as if a cat caught a canary. She rolled over to straddle me and leaned uncomfortably close to me. "Then you know what to do."
….
….
I let out another sigh.
"Can you please teach me some Illusion Magic… Onee-chan." Her smile widened even more and she nodded happily.
Yeah, this is all Serafall's fault. I am sure.
"Sure. But first, sing me the lullaby."
"Okay."
- Rias -
She looked as he had fallen asleep while singing the lullaby himself. He must have been very tired.
He was so adorable when tired and tried to act old.
She kinda understood why Lady Serafall teased Sona so much.
It was just that fun.
She wondered if her life would have been any different if there had been a Flinn the first time around. But then again, it was better that there was no Flinn in her world.
She didn't think she would have been able to stand any more losses. Only recently, she had recovered from her nightmares.
The ExE world's attack was just that terrible.
Nothing was spared. They had barely survived the attacks of the Machine Gods by the sacrifice of both Ophis and releasing Trihexa in a gambit against them, when the Spirit Gods, their so called allies, had come in to finish the job.
The Spirit Gods were waiting for both sides to exhaust themselves and when they found an exhausted army on both sides, they wiped out everyone who could stand against them, easily getting three planets under their control.
She supposed the fault was their own for trusting unknown sources. After all, why would someone, especially beings of such high power, support them with no goals of their own?
Every death had been hard on her.
The death of her friends, her peerage members, her family, her own children….
Even when her son was not on the best terms with her because of her supporting Issei, his death had hit her the hardest.
It also broke the illusion about a happy family she had.
Her son always blamed his father for not being there for them and she had always supported Issei, even when he was being… him. Some of the things she didn't agree with but still supported him. Like when he went out in search of the so-called Heavenly Breasts… or whatever crap he sprouted to go collect more harem members.
Things had turned worse after Asia's death.
All her efforts to hold her family together were useless.
And even at the end, he had chosen to fight in Japan to stop the invasion while all his family were in the underworld.
So when Gasper and Valerie had sent her soul back in time, she was a broken shell. To keep her away from the eyes of the Gods, she was sent back and her soul was merged with a younger self.
The only problem which happened was that due to some mistake in the spell, she had ended up in a parallel universe of sorts.
This was not her world.
This Zeoticus Gremory was not like her father and this Sirzechs Lucifer was not even close to her Onii-sama. Even her mother was different.
Perhaps the only welcome change in this world was lying in her arms.
She remembered the first week back in time when she was crying, a four year old had hugged and sang her a lullaby for the rest of the night.
It was probably the first night she had slept since she came back in time.
And now… this lullaby has become a habit which is only growing with every passing day. She understood why Onii-sama was so overprotective of her back then.
So now she too wanted to protect this light in her life.
She had first noticed something wrong with him and found the signs of sleeping sickness on him and took care of it with her Sephiroth Graal, a last gift from Valerie.
On investigating further, she found that one of Zeoticus Gremory's concubines was behind this.
She had personally driven that bitch, who was harassing Flinn out of petty jealousy of his mother, insane.
She had remembered the method Fafnir had used to harass and bring down Rizevim and tried it on her. Turns out that Rizevim Livan Lucifer deserved the title of a Super Devil. He had lasted much longer than the dumb bitch who went crazy in three days… and no one had noticed.
Looking once again at his sleeping figure, she lightly kissed his cheek and snuggled closer. "Yes. Onee-chan is going to do everything and anything to protect you, Flinn. Promise."
- Flinn -
The new Template was a bit problematic.
I did feel the change in my body after just one night as my vitality and stamina had risen considerably. This must be the so-called Uzumaki bloodline.
The problem however was the eye. The pain in my eye was flaring up bit by bit and it was gaining a purple tinge.
Rias did teach me some basic Illusion Magic but one doesn't just learn everything instantly. This problem will more or less be solved when I get the Transformation Jutsu.
Till then, I thought of a very simple method of keeping my changing eye colour a secret.
I changed my eye colour from turquoise to red.
Several people had noticed the change and I just told them that I was practising a newly learned illusion magic. Throughout the rest of the day, I kept changing my eye colour to get everyone used to it.
So by the end of the day, even when anyone noticed my odd coloured eyes, they didn't say anything.
The best way to hide things was to hide them in plain sight.
My first goal right now was to get Transformation Jutsu and then the Shadow Clone Jutsu. The Holy Grail of grinding was within my grasp.
It's just that I am eight years old now. Father has assigned me a teacher to teach me magic.
I have been looking forward to this.
Getting access to different skills is good but I would be a fool to ignore the skills of this world.
It's just that the one assigned to me was a bit complicated.
I looked at the woman in the maid uniform in front of me, looking at me with an emotionless gaze.
Silver hair and red eyes.
Grayfia Lucifuge, my elder brother's Queen and the last living member of the Lucifuge house. They were the servants of the previous Lucifer.
Now the complicated relationship is that she used to be involved with Sirzechs but when he took the seat of the title Lucifer, he chose a wife from the Agares Clan to get the support of the Archduke Agares, the second strongest political faction. And as a Satan, he was only allowed one wife. That resulted in Grayfia being left alone.
She was now hated by the Old Satan faction and had nowhere to go but serve as the Lucifer's aide to provide a show of normalcy.
I never understood the hypocrisy of the rule of Satans having only one wife.
On one hand, they bitch about the low number of Pure Blooded children and on the other hand, they restrict the strongest of their race from producing children which can become Pillars for the race.
"We are going to start with the basics of Devil Magic." She began with a cold and professional tone.
I nodded and tried to get a read on her.
She was trying to avoid me whenever she could. It was barely noticeable but it was there. I don't remember having much contact with her. We might only have talked a few times all these years.
Sirzechs keeps to his own Lucifer castle. The only reason he was visiting more was because of his son, Milicas.
The only thing I could think of was her projecting. Ah… looks like she still had the burns from her failed love.
That's surprising.
I was totally under the impression that he was still banging her despite whatever those old idiots in the council said.
This was a woman who had fought that crazy magical girl for the position of the Leviathan. Not that she would have gotten it. They wouldn't have allowed someone from the Extra Demons to take that position.
But it seems that my brother is keeping her out.
Poor woman. I had to wonder if Sirzechs has balls of fucking adamantine to keep her around him despite that. Wasn't he afraid of being stabbed in the back sometimes?
Even I could think of several ways for someone like her could screw him over.
Say what you will about her, she knew her stuff. The lesson was much better than the crap they taught in the etiquette class or the history of the Underworld. Not that it mattered for me. I had to read hundreds of books for the Sora Template.
Over the course of the class, I tried to see how she would react to me and she kept a distance, although she answered all my questions.
Well, all's good for me.
I didn't want a Satan Class being like her looking into my secrets.
By the end of the class, I conjured a magic circle in my hand and created a water ball. The very basics of spellcraft.
I already knew about these from my own reading and the lessons Rias had given me in private. The surprising thing was that Grayfia's lessons were almost the same as hers.
Even the finesse of the spells were almost similar. Did it mean that she was almost as skillful as a Satan Class devil or that Grayfia was holding back?
It seems I have to push her a bit during our future lessons.
She found out!
I just could not understand how she could have found out. I didn't do anything out of line. According to my calculations, she shouldn't have noticed at all.
So why?
I looked at the nine year old girl who was looking at me with a piercing gaze and couldn't think of anything to dupe her now.
"What happened to your eyes, Flinn? Who did this?" She asked, extremely seriously but I could see that her fingertips were shaking. She was afraid.
But she was not afraid of me but rather afraid for me.
It made me feel somewhat good because I confirmed once more that she cared. Probably the only person in this world who genuinely cared for me without any kind of selfish motive.
Now what should I say?
Lying to her would only make me lie to her more later on. Not to mention, I don't know what the later Templates are going to be.
There is a high chance that my secret will be out later on and then I would lose her trust and somehow, when I thought about that… It felt bad.
I got an idea suddenly.
Maybe I could tell her something which will give her an idea about my powers but not about the System.
I took a deep breath and looked at her. "I… have been having dreams. Very strange dreams." I checked for any change in her expression and continued.
"I saw a different world like this but there… things were very different." Her fingers quivered lightly. "I only saw bits and pieces of the place but I saw you. In the human world. A school called the Kuoh Academy. You had a girl with black hair and a ponytail with you as well as a white haired girl with a black cat hair pin. There was a blonde haired boy with a mole under his eyes and lastly… there was that idiot who always shouted boobs. I wanted to punch him so badly. But that guy had the Boosted Gear." Man, I really wanted to bust the nose of that bastard.
I might not have felt like that previously because the Rias from my last memories was just a character from a light novel but now… she was my sister. A person I loved.
And that fucking cunt was leering at my sister… Yeah, maybe I should go and see if he exists in this world and get that Boosted Gear as a compensation as well as kick his face hard, a few times.
At this point, she had hugged me close and I couldn't see her face.
"I was very annoyed by it and didn't see any further. Then the next day, I had another dream. About completely different people. This time about a boy called Sora."
And thus I continued to explain vaguely about my ability.
"I realised over the next few weeks that I could use some of his abilities."
- Rias -
The more she heard him speak, the more chilled her heart became. How? Why was this happening? To the only one she wanted to keep safe.
When she was checking him tonight for any abnormalities, a regular thing she had started since she had discovered the previous attempt to push him into Sleeping Sickness, she had noticed something wrong with his eyes.
On inspecting closely, she found that he was hiding it under an illusion.
Did he hurt himself and was hiding it to not get scolded?
But this…
She knew the world he was talking about.
It was the one she had experienced. Then why did he know?
She used all her strength to control her voice and asked him. "Since when?"
"Hmm? Oh. I think it was my fifth birthday."
A year after she had started sleeping with him.
The only thing she could think of which could do this was… the Sephiroth Graal.
Memories of the Dead, getting the skills and powers of the souls… and she had a piece of the Graal inside her. Something she used to treat him of the Sickness. Did that cause whatever this is? Even the timing that he said was close.
Did she hurt the only thing she had vowed to protect in this life?
Anger, pain, frustration. After years, all these feelings welled up in her again and transformed into tears.
"S-orry." She sobbed.
- Flinn -
What the fuck?
I really had no idea why she was apologising.
What happened?
One second I was giving her the censored version of my story and the next, she just broke down.
This… it was similar to four years ago, that night when I had caught her crying.
"Rias. I am fine, you know. It's not like I am hurt. This… whatever happened only made me stronger. You shouldn't worry about it." I hugged her back as I tried to console her. It was all useless.
She calmed down after almost an hour.
"Why are you apologising? This is not your fault." I repeated.
She shook her head. "This is all my fault. I…"
What came next was not something I had expected.
Her story.
Alien attack.
World Destruction.
Time Travel.
What the fuck?
Also, I was going to fall into sleeping sickness because of that bitch…
Over the course of the next two hours, my spine had gotten numb with the number of chills I had felt from the crazy story.
I looked at the dishevelled girl in my arms and felt complicated feelings.
Losing everything… and not being able to tell anyone.
No wonder she latched on to me so easily.
I couldn't even imagine what I would be like if not for her. A vegetable sleeping in some locked basement.
And I thought my life was crazy before.
"You didn't do anything wrong, you know. I am now stronger than before and growing stronger with each passing day. As for the memories, consider them the work I need to put to get those powers. We all have to bear some pain to become strong. My way is just a little bit different from all others. Also, look at it this way. Without you, I'd be a vegetable right now."
I consoled her bit by bit over the rest of the night to make her calm down.
Man, still… this was a massive shocker.
This world was going to be attacked by aliens?
Strong enough to just casually trounce off any faction leader.
I had roughly 30-40 years.
Will my Templates be strong enough?
Will I even have so many templates or these will just stop after a certain number.
I didn't know.
But I was worried. Extremely.
This world was not the one Rias said. That said, nothing was guaranteed.
The game went to Nightmare mode real quick.
I knew for sure that she was not lying. She had no signs of lying.
What should I even do?
There is no guarantee that any measures we take will even be valid before the enemies. Telling others was not an option.
They would hypnotise and try to get every bit of information out of her and then probably experiment on her.
At least this Sirzechs would do so. I had no idea about the one from her world.
So, what to do now?
The thoughts had been hounding me the entire day. She didn't want to let go of me so we just made up some excuse and stayed in our room the entire day.
At the end of the day, I could only come up with two solutions and I decided to talk to her about both solutions to decide which course to take.
"First method is simple. We prepare for the invasion which we might or might not win." The light in her eyes dimmed as if she was looking into a far off distance.
"You said that Gasper and Valerie, your peerage members sent you back in time but you were sent to a parallel world instead."
"Hmm."
"This means that your world must exist too. We can try to find a way to go to your world or… just a way to leave this world in the worst case scenario. We have thirty or forty years. Let's consider twenty for safety. Do you think we can do this much?" I asked.
"I… know certain parts of the spell Gasper used. If we modify it… Then maybe, we can reach my world. But… do you want to go there, leave all this behind?"
I looked at her incredulously. "What do you think I have in this world that I can't get in that one? You on the other hand are the heiress of the House, possibly the next head. The main risk taker will be you." It was true. Even with all my current Skills, I was more than capable of making a name for myself even without anyone's support.
Not to mention, without her, there is no one with whom I have a deep emotional connection with. They are more like neighbours than a family.
A moment later, she nodded in agreement and we knew our next goal.
This day, two people, an eight year old and nine year old reincarnators decided to take matters into their own hands.
Two and a half years had passed since that day.
I am almost eleven years old now. This time had been quite uneventful.
The course we decided on was to find a viable method of world travel for emergencies and then work on to find Rias' home world.
I had scoured the entirety of the Gremory Library in these two and half years. I know there are some areas which I am not allowed, like my father's personal library or Venelana's library but I was allowed to my grandmother's, Chysis' home and her collection.
There's pretty much a reputation of me being a hardcore bookworm so it was not weird.
What Rias did was, scour the Bael Library whenever she got the chance and even the Sitri which actually contained some of Serafall's books. We had gathered almost every book on space and time magic we could along with sealing arts and several other obscure ritual magic.
A large part of this was due to the new Skill I had learned.
The Shadow Clone Jutsu. The mother of all grinding skills. It made reading books too easy.
The Nagato Template was coming up great. It was much easier for me to practise the Nagato Template than I had expected because, first, I was not cripled like Nagato Uzumaki was and second, I didn't have to bear the Gedo Statue.
This reduced a lot of unnecessary load on me. That guy Nagato couldn't even explore the full extent of his Uzumaki Bloodline. The Sensing abilities of this bloodline were amazing.
This was also how I kept up with Grayfia's hardass lessons.
I also figured out why she was assigned to me. It turns out that Sirzechs wanted to keep her away from his son or rather both his wife and he wanted so.
Turns out that the man was confident in his own strength but didn't trust her enough to give her access to his son. Now she was stationed in the Gremory Mansion for the lessons of Rias and I.
I felt kinda sorry for the woman really.
Normally, I ate my dinner in the library or in my room and no one bothered me but today was different. I was called to dinner by my father's butler.
On reaching there, I found the entire family sitting together. Surprisingly, Sirzechs and his wife were also there, which was rare. There were even guests, Lord Phenex with his wife and son, Riser and Ajuka Beelzebub with his younger sister's family.
Wow, that's quite a gathering.
"Flinn, you are late."
"I am sorry Father. I got caught up in a book and didn't realise the time. I apologise for keeping everyone waiting." I bowed towards the guests and they waved it off so I went ahead to sit beside Rias.
"Take this seat, Flinn." Venelana pointed towards a seat beside Latia Astaroth, Ajuka's niece and I controlled the urge to raise an eyebrow but did as was told.
What exactly was going on today?
I observed everyone to understand the situation but my thoughts were interrupted by the voice of Ajuka's sister. "I remember Ajuka being like you when he was young. Always kept himself buried in the library and had to be dragged out for parties."
The statement got a few chuckles from everyone when the subject of the statement addressed me suddenly.
"What are you currently studying?"
I looked at the man. The brightest genius the Underworld had ever produced. Maybe he could answer something which had me stuck for a while now.
"Application and Modification of Teleportation Magic for combat use. I was trying to find a way to stabilise the channel for longer distances as well as turbulent areas while keeping speeds within the manageable limits. The space channels I am creating are getting disrupted too easily when I keep them open for a long time."
"But wouldn't you want to be faster in battle? Why is speed your last concern?" He asked.
"I was thinking of opening a portal under the sea and an extremely small portal to utilise the pressure of the ocean. According to me, such an attack would be able to…"
"Produce water jets strong enough to cut diamonds, rivalling most Ultimate Class beings, since you don't have to use your own energy to propel the water. Not to mention, the energy needed would be something which can be used even by a Middle Class Devil. Brilliant."
Yes. I am brilliant. What of it? Now gimme the answer. I let one of my secret techniques out in front of everyone to find out the method to create stable Magic Circles to withstand turbulent spaces.
"Really? That's possible?" Father asked, surprised. Ajuka just nodded looking in thought.
"In certain circumstances, it might be a bit difficult to use but in most cases it should be possible. Can you show me the arrays you are using for the circle?"
I nodded and created only the part of the spell which I was having problems in.
Others were keeping an eye on it as well but I really needed this answer. We were working our butts off but didn't get this problem out in the last three months.
"A Ritual Based Circle with one end of it at the point from which the water will be summoned or an anchor of some kind will be much better suited for this or if you have an artefact, possibly a Sacred Gear with Space Affinity then you can use this as much as you want even at high speeds. Other than that, it would be hard to use it in live combat."
A Ritual or a Sacred Gear huh. I can figure something out.
"But it can still be used as traps. Maybe attached to some kind of wards for triggering attacks. Maybe weapons."
"Yes. That would be the most appropriate use of it. You can get the spell patented when you complete it."
Oh yes.
There were patents too. I didn't even think of those because I was not planning to show anyone the results. Ah crap. I guess I will make a makeshift trap and water guns and get it patented.
I will have to do it considering the looks Father was giving me. I bet he had already started calculating the profits from the weapon sales.
"In that case, Grayfia, assist Flinn in the project if he needs. You are his teacher after all." Sirzechs ordered and the poor woman just nodded.
Man… that's hard.
But today I didn't have time to worry about Grayfia. I needed to solve my own problems today.
We discussed the ritual circle and he was actually interested in my research, even inviting me over to his lab sometimes. I could get the proper Ritual for the Circle there.
As for the anchor, Rias' Sephiroth Graal was from that world, although from the future. If we use all these in conjugation, there is a high chance we could jump between those worlds.
We will just need to be at least Peak Ultimate Class beings… to power up the circle.
A large hurdle almost solved.
Tonight was good.
"Tonight sucked." I shouted as I finished making a barrier around our room.
"Are you mad, Flinn-kun?"
"Obviously I am mad. Did you see that bastard? He was leering at you and Father or anyone else didn't even seem to care. And what was with that absurd contract? You will not even be allowed to get peerage members if they don't agree to join his harem? That's insane."
"It was demanded by Riser himself and according to the contract, any children from the members of my peerage will belong to the Gremory House. Father is getting potential Phenex Tears vending machine, why would he care?" She replied nonchalantly.
I looked at her annoyed.
"Are you not angry? I mean I know that you can solve the problem quite easily but still…" I gritted my teeth. If I wanted to, I could think of several reasons why she was behaving like this. But right now, I was angry and wanted to just get angry.
My father had basically sold my sister off for money to a complete asshole. That bastard had the gall to demand the Peerage clause, explicitly saying no man should be in her peerage and the women had to agree to be a part of his harem.
If I could get away with it, I wanted to try my new Human Path and see if I can pull out Devil Souls with just as much ease as human souls.
"I have been through worse." She said and I stopped for a moment. Damn. I poked the wrong point. "And as you stated, he wouldn't be able to do anything to me." She suddenly smiled back at me. "Say, Flinn-kun, are you getting mad for Onee-chan's sake? That's so cute."
She jumped on me and I didn't even bother to dodge. Her breasts smothered me. She was using the Transformation Technique to take her former adult form.
I guess I was more angry at my family than Riser himself.
The fact that they accepted such an insulting demand readily, even happily was… frankly disgusting.
This… this was not how families were supposed to behave.
"And what about you, are you happy with your little fiance?" She asked me, playfully biting my ear.
Yes. That was also a thing. Apparently, they decided to engage me too.
Showing off to get my answer and some books cost me getting engaged by my opportunist Father and Ajuka's Brother-in-law.
"I am not interested in little girls. Maybe in a few years." Latia Astaroth was a good girl, if not a bit cold… but that's the problem. I have had enough cold people in this house. I didn't want more.
"Oho, Flinn-kun is interested in mature women? Maybe like Onee-chan." She pressed her breasts against my face once more.
Dammit, puberty. Where are you when you are needed?
That said, I wanted this today so instead of pushing her away like usual, I hugged her tighter, burying my face in her cleavage further.
- Rias -
She found herself smiling a bit at her brother acting spoiled for probably the first time in months. Generally, it was her job to be the spoiled one because she liked to see his reaction but it seems that today's events had really made him angry.
To be honest, she understood. If she had been her younger self, she would have thrown a big tantrum and might have done something crazy. Not that it would have helped her in any way. But she wasn't the same girl from back then.
This much is something she can handle.
She didn't care about any peerage members she was going to recruit. Maybe they would be recruited by Zeoticus Gremory to have a higher chance of inheriting the Phenex Bloodline. Either way, they wouldn't be her peerage members. For her, no one would replace her peerage members.
Riser in her world had turned out pretty well. He had fought in the front lines and had stayed put till the last moment, even against overwhelming enemies.
They had become quite good friends and his daughter was in a relationship with her son, probably could become her daughter-in-law if things had been better.
But this Riser… was not the one she knew.
She would explain things to him no doubt. After all, he was just a kid now but, if he tried anything out of line, she would make sure that little Riser can never rise again.
But this was not the time to think about those things. Her cute little brother was jealous and she was going to enjoy this feeling till it lasted. So she picked him up and took him to the bath. This Transformation Technique is very convenient. Genius even. One simple spell took care of the clothes and they both entered the bathtub.
A good bath with Onee-chan will calm him down.
- Flinn -
Ajuka's Lab was huge. And it was supposed to be, I guess. This was the place where most of the best research in the Underworld was done. It was the headquarters of one of the Satans.
This was the bloody place where the Evil Pieces were made.
And the Evil Pieces were also the reason why I was called here today.
Finally, I was eleven and I was allowed to get my set of Evil Pieces. Since our last interaction, I had an invitation to this place but I had to do some work on those wards and guns first. It took me around one month to get those ready.
Ajuka's method worked but on experimentation, I found out that I needed to use a High Tier Sacred Gear to do the jump. Maybe even a Longinus.
Thankfully, Rias knew the identity of the user of the Dimension Lost in her world and she knew where we could find him if the user was the same person.
For this, I would need to get the Evil Pieces and use the reason of collecting Peerage members to go to the human world. Further experiments were getting harder to do while remaining in the Gremory Mansion.
Rias was going to ask to be admitted into a human school and with her already being so far ahead of her peers, she would probably be allowed too.
I will follow.
Grayfia was the one who brought me so there was no need to wait at the security checks. I was directly led to the upper floors.
"Welcome Flinn. I guess you are here for both the Magic Spell Patent and the Evil Pieces?" he asked and I nodded simply in reply. "Let's get the Evil Pieces out of the way first." I was led to another room and asked to put my hand on the King's Monument. It basically registered my Magic and imprinted my signature on my pieces so that a connection can be established between us and I can summon them from wherever I am.
The pieces were given to me and I found one piece with a different colouration than others. A mutated Evil Piece.
My Queen Piece was mutated.
Good haul.
What followed next was a small tour of his lab where I got my design patented after it went through several quality tests.
The Gremory Water Guns were now ready for sale.
Yeah, I know. The Gremory House people don't have the best naming sense.
Even my own name meant, the son of the Red Haired one.
Quite original.
As much as I love my sister, even she had this same problem.
Maybe this was the Gremory Clan Trait… bad naming sense.
The best part without a doubt was the library. Ajuka gave me access to his staff's library when I showed him some of my ideas. According to him, they had potential.
I was happy because I stood among the best collection of books in the Underworld, second only to his own private collection.
There was just no way that I was going to miss this opportunity.
We stood in the training grounds under our house in Kuoh Town.
As planned, Rias had asked for a stay in the human world. I made up some reasons to follow her.
Talking with Father was like talking to a boss for funding on new projects. If he doesn't like the reasons, he will just deny the whole thing.
So I made up a reason that I would recruit any males with potential because Rias cannot recruit them as well as get some inspiration for some new work.
The Gremory Water Guns made a decent amount of profit so he allowed me to do as I wanted too.
We were assigned a guard and that guard was Grayfia.
Our trip was a good enough excuse for Sirzechs to send her away with us for a long time without any eyebrows raised. I did find out the reasons for this.
Sirzechs' wife… she was jealous.
She was not comfortable with Grayfia because of their previous relationship and was always worried that he would accept her back. No chance of that happening.
That guy was a cold hearted devil. He hadn't batted an eye when the contract between Rias and Riser was made because he got the support of the Phenex.
Would he risk the ire of the Agares and Astaroth houses for one woman? No chance.
Her envy had turned into paranoia when her son was born, always worrying that she would do something to him to get back at her.
So, Sirzechs had to keep her away from Lilith.
The house was owned by the Gremory and so was the school. I actually wanted to go and rip the Boosted Gear out of that bastard's soul right now. Maybe even allow the King of Hell to chomp on his soul but was stopped by Rias.
According to her, there was a chance that he was being watched or had been contacted by the priest or agent of the Spirit Gods at a very early age in the form of an old man after which he became obsessed with breasts.
If we spooked anyone soon enough, there was a chance that the attack might happen sooner and then we'll be fucked.
Today however, Grayfia was back to the underworld to report and get me some books from Ajuka's library.
We used this opportunity to do something I had been waiting a long time for.
To merge with the Nagato Uzumaki template. I completed the progress two months ago but didn't find a suitable place to do the assimilation without attracting attention.
Nagato was strong. Especially with the Rinnegan, he was much stronger than both the previous Templates.
I am at an Ultimate Class level, a veritable island destroyer with just these powers. His powers were a tier lower than what they could have been due to the missing Gedo Statue but to me, it was actually good rather than bad.
So, there was a chance that the assimilation could attract some attention.
"Are you ready, Flinn-kun?" Rias asked me as she finished putting up the last barrier.
"Yes." I nodded.
"Go on. I will try to keep the barrier up."
Nagato Uzumaki [100% Complete]
Congratulations for completing the third Template.
Please select the desired Rewards.
Enhance Chakra Reserves
Enhance Uzumaki Bloodline
Enhance Rinnegan
Gain Uzumaki Adamantine Chakra Chains
Gain Uzumaki Healing Physique
Gain Mind's Eye of Kagura
Merge Rinnegan to your bloodline.
Oh man. This was a hard choice no matter how many times I see this.
On one hand, Uzumaki Bloodline enhancement would never be bad but the last option was just too good to give up.
It was not just binding the Rinnegan completely to my body. The Graal could have done that. No. This was binding it to my own Bloodline.
In this way, I would be able to pass on my bloodline to anyone of my descendants.
As for Enhancing the Rinnegan. I didn't have enough chakra to use the Rinnesharingan.
I didn't even want to try that yet. It would just suck me dry.
The only tipping point was that I didn't know how much I would get an enhancement in the Uzumaki Bloodline? Will it be enhanced to the level of Asura Otsutsuki?
Then it would have been the best choice. Unfortunately, I didn't want to risk it.
According to the tests Rias had conducted on me over time, the Rinnegan contained a completely different chakra than my body. It was of a higher purity.
We had extracted some of it and stored it. Our next goal was to change all the chakra in my body into that chakra using the Graal.
We are going to meta our way into power.
It wouldn't be anything of the Six Paths level but even Madara's level when he merged with Hashirama's cells, would be insane. Although getting to Madara's level of Skill would be nigh impossible for me in a short time.
All said, I closed my eyes and selected the last option.
Suddenly pain flared up in my eyes and crawled to the rest of my body. First into my head. It was as if the blood in my veins had turned into fire.
I gritted my teeth and used the total concentration breathing but blood flowed from the corner of my eyes as the pain travelled to the rest of my body even faster.
Keeping track of time was hard and I just wanted this pain to be over. I don't know how long it lasted but when the pain was over, I passed out.
Randomising the next Character Template
Character Template Selected: Kouen Ren.
Integrating the next Character Template. Kouen Ren: Progress - 0%.
When I woke up, I found myself in the familiar soft embrace and snuggled deeper into the bountiful valleys in front of me, earling a soft moan.
"Do you feel alright? You almost scared me out of my life when you passed out." She asked me while softly caressing my hair as I relaxed.
"I was not expecting it either. The last two merges were not painful." Then again, the last two merges were not physical and more abstract like Intelligence and Talent.
"How long was I out for?"
"Two days. I used a Shadow Clone and Transformation and fooled everyone. Don't worry. They don't know we are here. On a side note, Grayfia brought the books. I think we can work on the Ritual from now."
"Great."
"Thank you, Flinn." She whispered.
I couldn't see the look on her face as I was still enjoying the softness of her breasts but I did notice the change in her tone. "What happened? What's this about?"
"Children, your age should be playing and enjoying their time and yet… you are doing all this… for me. I… feel like I am taking away your childhood from you."
….
"First of all, I wouldn't even have a childhood without you. I would be lying somewhere in some basement, like a vegetable. Secondly, I would have done this either way. I am not interested in dying in this world if the aliens attack. Third, you are not taking away my childhood but giving me better means to protect myself. And lastly, I won't become a profit counting machine like father and Sirzechs down the line because of you."
"You just know the things to say to make me happy, don't you?"
"What can I say? I'm smart. It's a gift."
We broke out into a laugh at this.
When I got up, I checked the changes in my body due to the integration and wow… my chakra reserves had gone up but… a lot. In terms of pure energy reserves, I was nearing Grayfia's level. That's… insane.
The second fact was that I could now change my eyes at will and my eyes could change to their previous forms. Sharingan.
Hell yeah.
These eyes are crazy, seriously.
Matching it with the Transparent World, close combat was a piece of cake.
I might not be Madara but Yoriichi was no slouch either. That madlad cut that demon Muzan so bad that his ass had been burning for five fucking hundred years.
Sharingan can see energy movement.
It's quite good even when used against magic. Although not as easy as against chakra because they are used with the same twelve hand signs while magic can be used in millions of different ways, it did give me the ability to see how the magic was moving. It's a great ability.
Then came the Mangekyo Sharingan or rather Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan abilities. I got my own as these Eyes were now mine.
It was said that the Sharingan gives the ability most desired by the user and I am thinking it's true. One of my eyes had a Kamui while the other had the black flames of Hinokagutsuchi. And there was the Susanno. I finally understood why every Uchiha with a Mangekyo had such a God Complex.
Holy shit.
The hundred and fifty metres giant of Chakra does fill your guts with confidence.
And finally, the Rinnegan's ability. It was called Takamagahara, the Heavenly Abode of Gods.
It was a Skill similar to Kaguya Otsutsuki's Yomutsu Hirasaka.
The only catch is me having a slight clue or even coordinates to where I am going. This made the work of designing the spell much easier.
We just had to locate the world we were going to go to and have the necessary reserves to break through the world's barrier.
Two years have passed since we came to the Human World.
We did a few thing in this time, the foremost being Shadow Clones are fucking amazing.
With just two clones in the house, studying, we could dupe even someone like Grayfia as we roamed around the world for our work.
I was still getting used to my new powers. Nagato knew a lot about the Rinnegan but he didn't know shit about how to use the Sharingan jutsus. I was not going to give up on those sweet abilities. So in the last two years, all I did was explore the powers of the Sharingan and discover how to cast Genjutsu using one.
Thankfully, we had enough test subjects.
Rias wanted to see what happened to the counterparts of her peerage members and if we could recruit some of them so we tried to find some information.
Akeno Himejima was taken away by her father at birth. Her mother was exiled and was living alone.
Gasper was trained as a weapon of the Vampire race. He had supposedly killed Valerie during one of his outbursts.
The Holy Sword Project was carried out but the children were not killed. Instead, stray exorcists were used to extract the Holy Sword factor to make new Holy Sword User, the chief among them was Ishiah.
Kuroka and Shirone were sent to the human world and were under the care of the Nura Clan of Nurarihyon.
Asia Argento was in the Vatican, regarded as a Holy Maiden.
Xenovia Quarta and Irina Shidou were trained by Vasco Strada and some Edward guy.
To be honest, it was very in line with what I had expected. The one which was off was Rias' world.
For example, a Fallen Angel saved by a Miko gets her pregnant with a child with the strongest bloodline of the Fallen Angel race, just to leave them fend for themselves when some dumbass humans come to kill them and all this while he still loves them?
What part of that made any sense?
Fallen Angels, especially ones who were the first ones to fall were no different from the Old Satan Faction in their viciousness. They might have calmed down but that nature was still there.
No way they were going to let an attack like that go.
This was already not mentioning the stupidity of a teenage devil walking to the church area and even tricking a nun to be exiled.
The first thing they teach in church is to attack when they see a Devil.
Even I had to use Sharingan Genjutsu on many people to find out the information and didn't dare go inside by myself. Well, I did try with my shadow clones but all of them were killed without fail. They might have some kind of warding to detect any demonic beings trespassing there.
We did get the Dimension Lost user and were able to easily extract his sacred gear with the help of the Graal.
Add to that, we also went and borrowed Telos Karma from a girl locked in the Basement. It was easy and she even thanked us. See, we are doing good work.
Now we only needed to keep working on completing the magic and leave this damned world soon enough.
Telos Karma would increase the probability of success for us.
All in all, this world had lost all its interest for her too.
But in all this, we did get one peerage member for me.
"Are ara, Flinn-kun, so energetic early in the morning." The voice roused me from my sleep and I opened my eyes between two pairs of soft creamy white goodness.
Shuri Himejima, my new pawn woke me up.
Yes. Rias decided to recruit her when we found out that she was basically exiled. The Grigori didn't want anything to do with her to avoid trouble and the Himejima Clan didn't want anything to do with her due to shame. Hell, even the other exiles didn't want anything to do with her.
This woman, from her early twenties, was without anyone, living her life doing odd jobs and some random exorcisms for people to survive.
So, when we had approached her, she hadn't even resisted. It was like watching someone who hated the very world itself and just wanted things to be over.
It took us several months of visiting and slowly convincing her to finally trust us. She agreed to join my peerage when I asked her.
Since then, she has grown quite close to me. She told us that she had tried to get in touch with her daughter but was not allowed and by now, her daughter considered her a stranger, being raised mostly among the Fallen Angels.
So, when she joined us, she kinda latched on to us. We did verify her loyalty and then made her a part of our plan. Now, she wants to go to Rias' home world and meet that version of her daughter, Akeno.
In a way, Rias was older than her, so she actually deferred to her while she was quite protective of me even though I was the strongest one in our group of three.
Oh, by the way, the best thing which happened in these years was… puberty. And the proof of this was standing proudly between my legs.
"I have told you not to tempt me, Shuri-san. I might really do something one day." I really might… seriously.
"Ufufufufu then I will be waiting for that day." She pulled me further into her embrace as her thighs covered my length.
"Then you need to wait in line, Shuri. I already have dibs." The last occupant of our bed took my earlobe in her mouth and teased me.
Really, both of them were tempting fate… and me, especially me.
So I retaliated the only way I could at this time, by playing with their breasts.
"We are being called back to the Underworld for my birthday. Grayfia will be taking us back."
Yeah. There was that. We still needed to show our faces in the Underworld.
I wonder if anything changed in the last two years there? Not that it matters.
_x_x_
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Author's Note:
This story was different from all my previous ideas. It was the result of a challenge on top of my original idea so it might seem a bit off in the first chapter.
Bear with me till the second chapter. Things will get much better.
A time travel story has been done several times but I still haven't seen any good Dxd Time Travel stories yet.
I added a slight twist to it from my side. It had always intrigued me on how a world where people act like they are supposed to would look like for DxD.
I still kept it tame.
The System as you have already seen, will mostly be in the background.
I skipped most of the events of the first world because the real story will start after the jump.
As for Flinn. He is a Semi-SI. There is still childishness in his nature. The memories did have a very large effect on him but didn't change his core.
Flinn has developed some mature tastes courtesy of a Yandere Onee-chan and a milfy Pawn.
Enjoy the new story.
Good Day, Peace out.